Teen abuse of medicines a concern

Recent teen abuse of over-the-counter cold and cough medications has some U.S. military communities in Germany worried. The Defense Commissary Agency and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service restricts sales to teens of some products at their stores.


Teen abuse of medicines a concern
By Charlie Reed, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Teen abuse of over-the-counter cold and cough medications recently has raised concerns in U.S. military communities in Germany but a newly released report shows it is a fairly common problem.

“Monitoring the Future” — a federally funded, annual study conducted by the University of Michigan — shows that 4 percent, 5 percent and 6 percent of students in grades 8, 10 and 12, respectively, ingested common cold remedies to get high in 2007. Calling the rates “fairly high,” officials said similar results were reported in 2006.

“At least this problem of youth misuse of these over-the-counter medications does not seem to be getting worse but there is little evidence yet of much improvement,” UM principal investigator Lloyd Johnston said in a prepared statement following the study’s release last month.

Taken in large doses, over-the-counter drugs containing dextromethorphan, or DXM, can give users a hallucinatory high and, in some cases, can cause death, brain damage, seizures, loss of consciousness or irregular heartbeat, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

“Robotripping” — getting high with cold and cough medicines such as Robitussin and Coricidin D — recently sent teens in Mannheim and Hohenfels, Germany, to the hospital. The incidents prompted officials in those communities to take measures to curb the problem.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51501